Out This Week 10/16

Seattle’s own The Maldives lead this week’s list of new releases. Led by songwriter Jason Dodson, the band has previously performed with nine or more members, is now a lean six-piece with a grittier sound. Our Music Director, Don yates, calls their third album “their sharpest batch to date, ranging from Thin Lizzy-influenced rockers to desolate, country-steeped ballads.”

The Maldives – Blood on the Highway (MP3)
from Muscle for the Wing on Spark and Shine

Another local songwriter tops our list, but this time, Death Cab For Cutie’s Benjamin Gibbard strips away his entire band for his first solo release. On Former Lives, he gathers “a diverse selection of songs written over eight years that didn’t fit on any of Death Cab’s albums and while the sound bounces from peppy pop-rock and stripped-down acoustic folk to country-rock and Mariachi western, Gibbard’s honeyed, wistful vocals and bright pop melodies help make it a fairly cohesive listen.”

Also flying it alone, Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle delivers on his second solo album, “a well-crafted set of cinematic space-rock with an atmospheric sound combining sci-fi synths, stately piano, rumbling guitars, synthetic strings, breathy vocals and mostly dark lyrics.” But San Diego indie vets Rob Crow and Armistead Smith IV rejoin after five years of their own solo and side projects for the latest album as Pinback, which “finds them in fine form with a strong set of beautifully crafted indie-pop featuring an intricately layered sound of interlocking guitar riffs, melodic bass lines, atmospheric synths, warm vocals and dreamy melodies.”

More albums you’ll need to check out this week include the fourth album by Seattle/Bellingham band Police Teeth, which also happens to be “their tightest, most cohesive and hook-heavy set to date, with a driving, aggressive post-hardcore sound fleshed out with angular guitar riffs, propulsive rhythms, shout-along choruses and alternating urgent lead vocals from James Burns and Chris Rasmussen on songs ranging from raging anthemic punk to brooding post-punk”; a debut of Daphni, the dance project by Caribou producer/multi-instrumentalist Dan Snaith, which “is targeted more explicitly at the dance floor with a propulsive set of minimal house grooves combining playful analog synths, looped samples and crisp beats”; the second album by Vancouver band Peace, whose second album is anything but… rather, it’s “a strong set of hypnotic post-punk with wiry guitars, propulsive rhythms and mostly declamatory, sometimes crooned vocals”; and “a solid, varied set ranging from spirited rockabilly, blues-rock and surf to poignant country and ‘50s rock ‘n’ roll ballads” from veteran singer-songwriter-guitarist Rosie Flores.

You’ll find all of these and more in your favorite record store today… but don’t even try leaving here before you sample the new releases gathered below: